Our children made war on the gifts, but they were many and we were not. The gifts used the stone and glass of our children to defend themselves, stopping the other children from reaching them. Though our children tried, they could not fight them.

- Chapter 19, The Unwritten History of Neah-Reath

“Focus, child. You may have managed the light spell, but that is the simplest spell-form there is and needs the least magic channelled through it to work. The fireball spell is both more complicated and more difficult to do. You have the first part down, but you need the second part as well, otherwise there’s a good chance you’ll just blow yourself up.”

“I know, I know. But it’s hard! I thought it’d be easier since I’d managed the light spell properly.”

“Trust me, child, it is much easier. I know some people who have blown up their hands trying to perform the fireball too soon. Now, copy me again.”

Cornelius drew an abstract symbol in the air, flattened circle with a squiggle on top of it. He then drew a larger symbol around it, this one that looked like a spiral to the sides, then a line coming towards him, followed by a line moving away from him.

As he drew, he explained it again “this part of the spell-form is for fire, he indicated the first part. The next spiral on the outside indicates release, which is how it makes the explosion, while the final part imparts motion. You need to draw all without mistakes and start channelling magic into it as soon as you have finished the first part. You need to have enough magic channelled into it as you finish the symbol for explosion, because if you do not, then it won’t have enough power. Then any magic you channel into it during the final part will give it the speed. You can still throw it if you want, but it makes no difference to the actual effect of the spell.”

“Shouldn’t I just use the first part for now? Why not just learn how to do the fire part?” Teah asked in a tired voice.”

“One, because it would do you no good on your journey to the capital, as you need to learn this spell to defend yourself. Two, because then it would activate as soon as you started channelling magic into it, which is how you blow up your hand.”

“What? I thought the second part was for the explosion! How is that safe?” she exclaimed.

“No, child, I explained this. The second part controls the explosion, it does not create it. That is created by the energy of the fire. This is how spell-forms work. They create magic, but it retains the properties of it’s nature. Fire magic is full of energy. The spell-form focuses it into one place, which is how it does damage. The second part of the spell-form controls it while you are channelling it, so that it will release later.”

“Ahh! It’s like a detonator!”

Cornelius blinked at her slowly.

“I am not sure what you are speaking about, but it that helps you perform the spell, then by all means think of it so.”

Teah smiled then had a thought.

“So, if this symbol means explosion, is it always used for spells to make that effect? So, could I combine it with the light spell-form to make a light explosion?”

“Ahh, very good question! Unfortunately, the answer is maybe. A lot of magic is done through intent. That is why you have to have the desire for the spell to happen, as otherwise it won’t work, no matter how much you try to force it to. However, the magic symbols still have meaning, so it is not as simple as just wishing for things. The symbols effectively tell the magic what you want to do, while your desire is what makes the spell happen. This symbol is the explosion symbol for most basic spells, but the light spell actually uses two elements, that of fire and air. That means that you need to use different spell-forms when using light spells.”

“Wait, why do I learn to use a spell with two elements first then? Wouldn’t it be easier to just learn fire first?”

“No, you are confusing the elements of the magic with the elements of the spell-form. How many elements are used in the spell does not affect complexity. Effect is what determines how complex something is.”

“Ahh, because it’s all just converting the natural magic into the unnatural magic!”

Cornelius winced slightly at the term but nodded in agreement.

“That is correct. Now, start again. Focus on the spell-form first. You need to have it perfect before you start channelling the magic into it.”

Teah started making the spell-form again, drawing it slowly. Each time she did, Cornelius would point out what parts she had made a mistake in, then get her to draw it again. It took most of the day, but finally, after dinner, she had done it enough for him to feel it was good enough.

“Well, done, child! Now, watch this!”

With a twinkling smile, he quickly drew a spell-form around her spell-form and it froze in the air, as though encased in glass. Teah stared at it in astonishment, walking around it as it hung in the air.

“That’s incredible! Wait, if you can do that, why didn’t you do it before?”

“Because if I did it with mine, then it wouldn’t remain visible for you.” Saying that, he released the spell-form that he had been using to help Teah draw in the air. As he did, the frozen spell-form flickered and faded slightly, but remained hanging in front of her. He sighed in relief, his posture relaxing.

“Ahh, that is better. Even with my experience, keeping it going for so long is a chore.”

He stretched out, rolling his shoulders and swinging his arms gently, then he held up a hand and gently placed a finger into the frozen spell-form.

“This is an old trick that my professors used to do when we were first learning spell-forms. I can’t see your spell-form directly, but I can see the gaps in the spell holding it, while you are the reverse. This is the best way to practice the spell-forms, especially the ones that have three dimensions.”

With that, he slowly pushed the spell-form, making it spin.

“Now, you have a few more hours before you need to sleep, so spend it practicing the spell-form by yourself. You need to work on getting it as fast as you can, while still being accurate, but for now, just aim for accuracy. Tomorrow, you are going to start casting it.”

Teah gulped at the thought of having to perform a spell that already felt much harder than the light spell she had struggled with so much, but then looked at it determinedly.

“Alright, I can do this. It’s just like learning to write.”

“If you say so, child.” Cornelius said as he walked over to the table and sat down to continue writing in the book he had been working on. As he did, Teah started tracing the symbol slowly, focusing on it intently. She didn’t even realise that she had drifted to sleep, until she heard Cornelius’ calling to her.

“If you will sleep, I suggest the bed. It will be far more comfortable for you.”

Teah smiled at the old mage, noticing again how old and withered he looked, especially his legs. She pulled herself up and out of the chair and made her way to the bed, as Cornelius continued writing. Her last thought, as she lay down, was how odd it was that Cornelius always had things to do, despite claiming to be simply waiting to die.

She stumbled through shallow water, following a river upstream. Behind her, she could hear the grunts and shouts of those tracking her, ahead she could see a man, wearing leather clothes. She followed him carefully, moving as fast as she could. He called back to her “quick, I see a good place to hide up ahead!”

She moved quicker, catching up as he paused to pull back the bushes that grew next to the river. She grabbed a branch to pull herself up, wincing as her hand closed on thorns covering the bush. The man climbed up behind her then pulled the bushes closed again before turning to her.

“That should do for now. We’ll let them get past then double back. You can have a rest now, while I keep watch.”

Smiling gratefully at him, she lay down and closed her eyes.

The man was ahead of her again, as they moved silently through the woods, darting between the trees. The trees were not the canopy of a great forest but were short and misshapen. They both froze as they heard the sound of horns in the distance. Looking at each other, they both started moving faster, sacrificing stealth for speed.

In front of her, she saw the man fall, an arrow piercing his leg as he shouted in pain. She skidded to a halt next to him, trying to pull him up, but he shook her off.

“Go! I’m done for, but you have a chance. GO!” he shouted at her.

Ignoring him, she tried again, trying to lift him, when the crack of a branch made her stop. She looked up, seeing a flash of green, then gasped as she felt a spear pierce her. Shouting in pain, she fell backwards, only to have an arrow pierce her stomach. As her vision slowly faded to black, her hands clasping her stomach in a vain attempt to stop her blood from escaping, she saw a brown leather boot, with green skin above it approach her. She tried to look up, but then an axe crashed into her and she felt nothing.

“Ahhh!”

Teah jerked awake and threw herself off the bed, crashing into the ground as her senses overcame the terror that had awakened her. She lay on the ground, staring at the roof as she breathed heavily, slowly calming her racing heartbeat. Eventually, she felt able to sit up.

“At least you do not sleep late” she heard Cornelius’ drift over from by the fireplace.

“When I was a student, I was incorrigibly lazy, as most of us were. Fortunately, the professors also were, so we followed a more relaxed schedule than it could have been.” He continued, as he turned to stare at her.

“That was the most unpleasant one yet. But there was a man in my dream! Do you think that means something?”

“I do not know, child. Maybe these dreams are things that have happened to you, but I do not see how you could have died so much. Perhaps they are simply your memories coming back to you, and the fact that you die is a result of whatever took your memories attempting to stop it from happening. Without more information, I have no way of knowing what we are dealing with, let alone how they relate to you.”

She sighed, agreeing with him silently. She had spent a lot of time in the past week attempting to understand the dreams, but she couldn’t come up with an explanation that sounded right. Sighing again, she got up and made breakfast for the two of them, taking Cornelius’ arm as he struggled to walk and helping him sit.

“My thanks, child. I fear my body is not recovering from using magic as fast as it used to. I fear that I will reach the point that all magic-users fear soon; that of whether I will extend my life more by stopping using magic, or if the healing benefits from doing so are enough to outweigh the damage that using it does.”

He winced as he sat down, then spent several moments stretching his arms out.

“But that is neither here nor there. Quick, you should eat well. You will need your energy for today.”

Remembering what they had done the previous day, Teah felt herself wincing.

“Is it going to be so bad?”

“I fear so, child. This is your first real spell. Normally you would have spent more time studying the symbols and practiced some other, simpler, spells, but we do not have the time. You need to start your journey to the Capital as soon as you are competent to do so, or else we may miss out on learning about this mystery man that they have found.”

“You think he could leave?”

“I do not think anything. I am simply attempting to balance the possible futures. My contact said that is with the Royal Academy, but has no knowledge of the plans for him. However, I doubt that they will keep him around for overly long, so I expect that he will already have left them by the time you get there.”

“Doesn’t that mean that I should go now? It might be too late!”

“Settle, child. You need to be able to get there safely. There should not be much trouble, but away from the towns anything can happen. It is better to take some time now and be more prepared than it is to rush off.”

She nodded in agreement as she finished her food. Standing, she said “then let’s get started.”

Cornelius led her outside and down to the river that ran through the forest. They walked to a point where the river made a sharp bend and stood facing down the river.

“This is the best spot to do this. Now, remember, that the spell will move in the direction of the final line that you make. With practice, you can change the angle of the line to change the direction, but for now just focus on doing it as you practiced. Make sure you aim down the river, as we don’t want to set the forest on fire.”

Teah froze for a moment, thinking about that.

“So, what if I need to use the spell in a forest and I set the trees on fire? What should I do?”

“Well, I would suggest running for a start.” He said, looking at her sternly. “Anything that is making you cast a fireball spell is probably more immediately dangerous than a tree being on fire.”

She nodded in understanding as he continued.

“However, it shouldn’t be an issue, this is just a precaution. And the next spell you learn will be a water-based spell, so that should be enough for most problems that arise. Enough, now, child. Begin.”

Teah drew the spell-form, struggling slightly at first but soon managed it. As she drew it, she focused on channelling the magic through it, but as the first bit of magic started moving through it, she felt her body burn, ruining her attempt. The spell fizzled with a slight flash, startling her.

“Focus! If you had managed to get more magic into that, it could have exploded in your face!”

She winced at the thought, then straightened and tried again. This time, she tensed her body as she drew, waiting for the pain to attack her. As it did, she tightened her focus even more, concentrating on forming the symbol while she kept the magic flowing into it. Finishing the spell-form she felt exuberance flow through her, only for it to quickly disappear as she saw the effect she had created; a tiny dot of fire, no bigger than the flame of a candle that fell forwards more than flew, hitting the water not a yard from her. Disappointed, she turned to Cornelius in dismay.

“Let me guess, you tried to fight the pain as you channelled the magic?” he said quietly.

“Yeah! So what happened?”

“Unfortunately, for now that won’t work. When you do that, you are basically stopping the magic from flowing through you and into the spell-form. You need to learn to adapt to the pain, not fight against it. Again.”

Teah started again, forming the spell-form. As she started channelling the magic, she felt the expected pain, but tried to accept it. As she did, she found that the pain seemed to ease, and the magic sped into the spell-form. She finished the spell and a small fireball shot off, exploding several yards away.

“Much better! Not enough to be useful in combat, but a very good start! Well done!”

Smiling at the praise, Teah turned to him.

“That was nothing! Watch this!”